


These Unpolished Lines

by Exxact



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Community: fail_fandomanon, F/F, Gen, House Organa, Junk Drawer Fic, Mission Fic, Multi, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11583888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exxact/pseuds/Exxact
Summary: “Queen Siil and I have been corresponding for some time now.  She contacted me at the whim of her grandfather, the former King Jilne.  He now serves as her chief advisor.”Leia’s words are unusually clipped.  Rey feels her skin tingle the way it used to before a sandstorm.“She—or rather, she at the command of him—has offered funds to the Resistance in exchange for a marriage.  To a member of the House of Organa.  To you, Rey.”Rey is trained by a different Skywalker.





	These Unpolished Lines

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as the first chapter of a longfic after my idea of an arranged F/F marriage for Rey was well-received last year. 
> 
> Beta'ed by @Baethoven, who loves Star Wars femslash as much as I do.

It is dark, and the hushed mix of celebration and mourning throughout the base has enveloped it in a thick energy through the empathy of the Force, bearing down upon Rey until her entire body feels heavy and tight all at once. She dodges a group of unfamiliar pilots next to her room, rushing past them into the open flow of air outside of the barracks. She catches sight of a ladder affixed to the building's side and immediately begins to climb upwards, desperate to escape into solitude for the first time that she can remember.

 

Rey does not have words to describe the sudden alertness that catches her halfway up the barracks, nor will she until many years later, when D’Qar has long since reclaimed the durasteel bars beneath her hands. It startles her, this silvery thread of sound, jolting her free from her grief and fear until she remembers a similar awareness days before. She shudders, descending only once she has tampered down her nausea and has her blaster firmly in hand.

 

There is nothing beyond the cemented ground when she reaches it, however.  The pilots have dispersed out of the corridor, and Rey is about to go and search through her room when she sees that Poe is approaching her.

 

“Hey,” he says solemnly, his mouth tense. “I was just coming to find you. The General asked me to tell you that she wants to talk you as soon as possible in her office.”

 

Rey nods, walking past him as though in a trance. The call has become louder, a ringing in her ears that wordlessly leads her forwards, her every motion an attempt to respond to it.

 

“Don’t you need directions?” Poe calls out with a startled laugh that fades with Rey’s footsteps.

 

The door to Leia’s office is open, and Rey immediately walks in, the sound thrumming within her quieting to the delicate hum it had been on the ladder. Leia is seated at her desk, straight-backed and smelling faintly of smoke. She waves away Rey’s attempt at a bow humorlessly, motioning instead to a chair positioned across from her.

 

“I apologize for calling you in so late, but I’m afraid this needs to remain confidential. Sit, please.”

 

Rey obeys, frowning when her mind becomes silent once more.

 

“Rey, I would like you to meet Queen Siil Regirne Neyurve of Tarlohset.”

 

A muted holo snaps into life, re-forming itself into a slender human woman wearing a wide-skirted gown in a fashion Rey that has never seen before. He nose is sharp, her forehead high, her mouth rounded and downturned as she speaks vacantly, as though aware that her projection would be muted. Rey cranes her neck around, unable to hold back her curiosity despite the anxiety she can feel Leia holding within herself across from her. The Queen wears a high, twisted bun in hair the holo’s contrast suggests is lighter than her own, a strand of small round objects woven beneath it. Her arms never move from their sharp angle, palms resting delicately against the front of her skirt as her lips continue to move, her unblinking, painted eyes set perfectly forward, inscrutable.

 

As Rey continues to study the intricacies of the queen’s holo, she begins to feel a deep confusion set in, overriding her interest in this strange, elegant woman before her. She finally lifts her eyes up to meet Leia’s, whose face, like that of Queen Siil between them, is expressionless. 

 

Leia turns off the holoprojection, fixing her solid gaze upon Rey.  “The Tarlohsetti Pearl, they call her. I briefly knew her mother.  She fled with Queen Rhytanni when their dynasty fell. I had heard that she returned to court with Siil when the Queen died, but I only recently received confirmation that she has been the Neyurve matriarch in the years since.”

 

Rey remains silent in the pause before Leia continues, barely able to keep from blurting out that she has no idea what a pearl is, or that Tarlohset even existed, and why do Poe and Leia and this young queen all look so somber tonight? Is the Queen in danger? Her absence is palpable, as though the silent holoprojection had been a sentient third presence in the office.

 

“Queen Siil and I have been corresponding for some time now. She contacted me at the whim of her grandfather, the former King Jilne. He now serves as her chief advisor.”

 

Leia’s words are unusually clipped. Rey feels her skin tingle the way it used to before a sandstorm.

 

“She—or rather, she at the command of him—has offered funds to the Resistance in exchange for a marriage. To a member of the House of Organa. To you, Rey.”

 

Fear sings through Rey’s body, startling her upright and out of her chair. Has she been groomed to be sold to slavers, trapped by her hope? Is this how the Resistance funds itself, or it is merely a cover for a cartel like the one that had passed through Niima Outpost every third rotation? A shout erupts from deep within her, betrayal whipping through her mind.

 

Rey seems to lose the ability to think as Leia’s voice echoes her name. Flashes of her abandonment on Jakku appear before her as they had in Maz’s castle, slashes of emptiness and fear and transparent women disappearing silently from sight. The office has melted away, turned to sand beneath her that grinds through her clothing, rubs her skin, rips her raw and stings inside the cuts it’s created. She feels the red-hot burn of Kylo Ren’s mind cauterize the wounds, lines of hatred connecting them and she will never be free, she realizes, she will never escape the sand that curls around her and the creature who is burying her beneath it. There is silence as he immobilizes her as he did in the forest, and then there are screams she recognizes as her own.

 

“Rey, please, come back to me!”

 

Rey tightens her throat until she until she hears her own quiet breathing, until she can feel Leia’s body encircling her back, her tight grip around both of Rey’s wrists pinning them to Leia’s shoulders. She steadies her body, relaxing herself against Leia until the other woman sets Rey’s hands down gently into her lap. There are tracts of abrasions up her forearms and Rey realizes dully that the sand’s burn was the bite of her own nails.

 

“I’m sorry,” Leia’s voice is secure in Rey’s ear, steady in tone even as she suddenly appears tired to Rey, the dark circles under her eyes that have always been present thrown into harsh relief. “I should have begun more clearly, considering that this is your first mission for the Resistance.

 

The sincerity in her conviction is unmistakable, cutting through the twisting doubt the Force projects.  "I would never sell another living being, no matter the price.”

 

“Oh,” Rey mutters, shame coloring her face. She sits down once again, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, unable to meet Leia’s eyes.

 

“Why don’t you go back to the barracks and sleep? We can speak again in the morning.” Leia pats Rey’s shoulder, circling back around the desk to her own chair cautiously.

 

A spark of fear lights in Rey’s belly. “No, please!” she begs, too raw to feel ashamed of the desperation in her tone. She doesn’t want to leave, to have to go back to her solitary bunk at the end of the barracks where she can’t even hear the hum of the ships in the hangar or the steady beeps of the patrolling droids. Not back to her little room, where Kaydel’s hairbrush and Jess’s spare helmet wait for her, where not even the sweet weight of Finn’s jacket over her shoulders is enough to remind her dreams that she is no longer alone.

 

A softness creeps across Leia’s face in an expression Rey is unfamiliar with. She suspects it might be pity.

 

“Tell me more. Please.”

 

“You would be sent under the cover of an arranged marriage,” Leia begins, apparently pacified enough by Rey’s lack of panic to continue. “If the negotiations go poorly, like all other agents, you will have the option to retreat, though this is less a mission of danger than it is of peace. The Tarlohsetti are not a warlike people, but they are a precarious one.”

 

“Then why me?” Rey asks more sharply than she had intended to, defensiveness creeping once again into her voice.

 

Leia’s eyes are fierce despite the tears clouding them. “You are brave, so brave. And kind, and so much wiser than you should be, my girl.” She reaches for Rey’s hand across the holopad, clasping it tightly as Rey’s sobs jar the quiet of the little room. “I didn’t recommend your name to the Queen for your political mastery. Though I know you’d develop that in time, it’s you yourself that would be the greatest asset to the mission. The Queen no doubt wants the prestige of an Alderaanian bride as well as the protection the Resistance could offer her planet, but by offering her support, she has shown that she is ready to bring change to Tarlohset. She’ll need someone to help her bear the weight of beginning that, someone honest and bold enough to help rewrite tradition on a planet who sees it as its lifeblood.”

 

Rey knows that her disbelief must be written across her face. She longs with a shiver for the heat of Jakku, for the monotonous taste of her portions and the simple exhaustion of earning them.

 

“While it is difficult to predict the course of deep-cover missions like this, what I hope is that you ultimately will give this young woman the courage to rebel, to rule in her own right now even while her grandfather is still alive. Even if you only court her, I believe that you could help end Tarlohset’s constant neutrality by recruiting it into the Resistance. You are not 'no one’ now, but you could also become both a valued intelligence agent and a princess, if you wish.”

 

A laugh sputters out of Rey, unbidden. “But why not Jess? She’s a duchess—she’d know what to do. I’ll ruin it—I’m uneducated, I’m completely useless! I can fight like a desert urchin and fly a ship without causing it too much damage, but I can’t complete a mission like this!”

 

Leia smiles, the warmth of it bringing Rey close to tears once more. “You know, the title of ‘Queen’ on Alderaan was an elected one. One born outside of one of the great houses could achieve it. A nerfherder could rule the entire planet, were she well-educated, dedicated, and in possession of enough nerve.”

 

Rey blinks, feeling the hope in Leia’s voice diffuse the remaining tension within her.

 

“The Queen has told me that she believes a marriage would be beneficial not only for us, but for you as well. She spoke at great length about the ancient libraries her planet treasures, the majesty and bounty of the oceans that nearly cover Tarlohset, and, of course, the fine food, society, and living arrangements you’d be entitled to as first an honored guest and later as her Princess Consort.”

 

Rey’s blank stare at this information seems to disarm Leia, who grants her the grace of a pause. “She wouldn’t have you against your will, however, and was quite adamant that the Tarlohsetti would never be so uncivilized, though I’ve gathered that the idea of marrying a woman is acceptable to you.”

 

Rey nods her head, though the thought of the mission’s length strikes a cord within her. She may be gone long enough to truly marry this woman, to be undercover—to become another sort of no one.

 

Leia’s lips quirk into an attempt at another smile. “I believe she even mentioned that you would have to propose publicly. Prideful, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now. All the Tarlohsetti are.”

 

Rey lets out a soft noise she hopes resembles a laugh. _Their pride is a point of pride_.

 

Leia seems to relax for a moment, the lines on her brow settling into something that might look like peace on another woman. Rey listens to the purified hum of the larger ships in the hangar outside in an attempt to stave off the fear that lingers at the edges of her consciousness. When she finally speaks, the question she’s delayed asking reminds her of the times when she knew the parts she’d scavenged that day would give her an empty stomach that night. She needs to do this now, to have a quick, clean disappointment that she can set aside as she walks back to her bunk to endure the repercussions.

 

“I…if I may ask something? Does this mean I am not to be a Jedi?”

 

“Perhaps this mission is a part of your training,” Leia says tightly. Rey realizes, with a pang of regret, that Leia had prepared herself for this question. “If there is one thing that I know, it is that the Force works in ways we cannot understand. And perhaps should not,” she finishes quietly, squaring her shoulders as she leans across the table towards Rey.

 

The island, the ocean Kylo Ren had ripped from her mind comes to her in a haze, fading into sight in front of her in a faint wash of blue, as she were seeing the ocean through the dense clouds above D’Qar. Rey lets out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, watching the water as it slides against smooth, pale wrists, through delicate fingers.

 

“What about Luke Skywalker? And the map?”

 

“Leave Luke to me.”

 

The water has dissipated from Rey’s mind, leaving her only with memories of the violent flashes that came before it. She shudders out a breath as, chest prickling with fear, she realizes that waiting and dissecting this meeting into millions of possible outcomes is useless. This course of action is as inevitable as her escape from Jakku with Finn, decided the moment when her body told her to flee from the chaos scorching the marketplace behind her. She cannot escape it, nor, she decides, does she wish to.

 

Rey nods.

 

“Then I will go.”

 

  
+

“I can do this. I can do this,” Rey whispers to herself, pointedly ignoring the numbness of her legs underneath one of Jess’s borrowed gowns. It hardly matches the splendor of Queen Siil’s in the holo, but its sleek blue skirt and wide, frothy sleeves command a certain presence, even if she thinks the braids against her ears are much too small to be regal. She catches her reflection in the Dandoranian royal starship’s wing, studying the way the light strikes General Organa’s family crest where it is pinned to hold her cloak in place.

 

“You _can_ do this,” Kaydel agrees from beside her, squeezing her hand. “Even a queen from Planet Snob won’t be able to help herself from desiring our Rey of Sunshine. You’re far too dashing.”

 

Rey pales, unable to force the smile she clearly hoped to bring to her face.

 

“I only have ten hours of protocol and deportment training. And one of my mentors was Jess.”

 

Kaydel laughs. They lapse into silence for a moment, taking in the rush of activity several hundred yards away where General Organa is overseeing the last of the preparations for the base’s move to Ahch-To. Rey can feel the prickle of deep sadness beside her, and when she looks over at Kaydel, there are tears in the other woman’s eyes.

 

Kaydel catches her glance and smiles, looking off into the distance. “You’re going to love the ocean. It’s the only thing I miss about Arkanis, really. I can’t even describe how beautiful it is. It must be like your desert, in some ways. All that open space.”

 

Rey smiles back this time, imagining Takodana’s striking expanse of blue and consigning the terror of the forest beside it to the back of her mind. She pictures Queen Siil standing next to the water, hair golden and glimmering in the early morning sun like Kaydel’s.

 

Rey’s imagining Siil’s laugh as Poe approaches, shaking his head as Kaydel immediately stiffens.

 

“Tell me you don’t know why Rey’s dressed up and borrowing Jess’s starship. Lie to me.”

 

Kaydel frowns, a regal little set of her features Rey decides to take note of for future reference. “I didn’t tell anyone. Jess told _me_ because _you_ told _her_. If you had to lie in bed with her blurting out ‘Kriffing Emperor’s ballsack’ for three hours straight with no explanation as to why, I’m sure you’d demand a few answers, too. Really, it’s all your fault, if I may say so myself.”

 

Poe pulls a face that makes a startled laugh burst from Rey’s chest. “You couldn’t pay me to sleep next to her. She snored like a Bantha back when we were stuck on Dantooine, and if she’s stopped since you two have gotten together,” he says, eyebrows raised as Jess runs towards them, “I don’t want to know how you did it.”

 

“Stikmoss drops,” Kaydel play-whispers into Rey’s ear. “Old family trick.”

 

“Kay-Ko,” Jessika sing-songs, tugging on Kaydel’s bunned hair. “You’d better get your little behind in my co-pilot’s seat or you’ll be stuck in back with Threepio, Dr. Kalonia, and a puke bag again.” Though Kaydel huffs, Jess’s kiss against her cheek quickly turns her pout into a smile. Rey looks towards where Pamich waves to them from beside Dr. Kalonia and Finn, who remains sedated, unaware that Rey is leaving to become a princess even though she’s told him over and over every time she visits him before every meal. She bites back a sob as she thinks, not for the first time, that she won’t be there to see him wake up.

 

“Jessika, Kaydel, Poe-you need to start boarding,” Leia calls out as she marches towards them. Chewbacca walks beside her, one arm firmly on his bowcaster.  Rey grins like a child when she notices that Leia is wearing her hair in what she’d learned was a traditional Tarlohsetti style: piled high and twisted delicately backwards, something Rey’s hair is much too short for. Leia had patiently taught her how to wind the short braids by her ears into loops that brushed her temples, but what would she do when she needed to adopt either the beautiful Tarlohsetti style or the braided crown of an Alderaanian queen?

 

 _Oh, shut up_ , she thinks, narrowing her eyes at the panicked voice.

 

Poe is the first to clasp her shoulder, the genuine worry in his expression making her eyes sting with tears.

 

“We’ll look after Finn, don’t worry. We’ll tell him everything, I promise.”

 

Poe is nearly knocked out of the way by Jess and Kaydel, who hug her in quick succession before curling themselves together beside her. Rey feels a pull, a sudden, desperate _want_ for something she cannot name.

 

“You can reach me by comlink through the ship at any time, like Poe said,“ Kaydel looks warily at Leia, whose face remains free of any disapproval. “I know it’s for emergencies only, but please remember.”

 

Chewbacca huffs a polite “excuse me, just a moment” to the embracing pair beside him as he approaches Rey.

 

“I’ll look after the Falcon for you. She needs a few adjustments anyways, if you don’t mind?”

  
  
“Of course not. I’ll be back for her, please don’t worry.”

 

“I’m not worried about your loyalty. I’ve been around pirates for the better part of two hundred years-keep your wits about you with the lot you’re meeting.“

 

Rey tries not to frown. _Pirates?_ she wonders as she shudders into the Wookiee’s hug. General Organa had said the Neyurves were the rulers of an ocean planet, not smugglers or scavengers. How could they be as dangerous as anything she’s faced before?

 

As Chewbacca retrieves his bowcaster and walks towards the silence of the Falcon, Rey stiffens. She doesn’t want to face this alone. She doesn’t want to leave these people who have barely known her for three rotations and yet who have welcomed her into their thoughts and routines with a grace she’s never known before. She grabs at the frothing cuffs of her gown, wills herself not to tug at her hair. This is for their good as much as mine. I can save them if I only I can make her love me. But how am I supposed to do that? Win the heart of a-

 

Rey’s desperate thoughts cease as she notices Leia waiting patiently, the others gone to board their ships for D’Qar. Her diplomat’s smile is gone, replaced with a look Rey believes is awe.

 

“You may need this.”

 

Leia’s hand reaches into her left sleeve, and then she is holding out the lightsaber and Rey’s fingers are tingling and nothing can stand in her way as she grasps the hilt and clutches it to her heart.

 

“I have to say, it’s more elegant than the blasters I used to carry when I was known as the Princess of House Organa.”

 

Rey is sobbing, hands clawing against metal and cloth as Leia pulls her into a hug that might just rival the intensity of Chewbacca’s.

 

“May the Force be with you, Rey. Always.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to polish this up as an editing exercise, but most of the original worldbuilding for Tarlohset has gone into The Infanta's version of Eriadu (it also features a F/F marriage, if you're so inclined).


End file.
